You may remember that a baby Hippo was born in late January 2011 at the San Diego Zoo, in front of about a hundred zoo guests. A crowd gathered during the mother’s two-hour labor to watch as mom Funani gave birth in the pool. At 11:30 a.m. You can read more about that and see the earlier Hippo baby pictures and video by CLICKING HERE.
The baby has been determined to be a male and was named Adhama. He is now 5 months old.
Photo Credit: Sand Diego Zoo
And exactly how does a baby hippo play under water?
A bouncing baby Hippo was born yesterday at the San Diego Zoo in front of about a hundred Zoo guests. The crowd had gathered during the mother’s two-hour labor. Then, at 11:30 a.m., the mother, Funani, gave birth in the pool. The calf quickly popped up out of the water and took its first breath. It soon was swimming around its mother, which appeared a bit tired from labor.
On November 26th, Switzerland's Zoo Basel welcomed a baby Hippopotamus. Believed to be a boy, the "tiny" hippo sticks close to mom, joining her for swims and short, cautious adventures outside. Despite outward similarities to rhinos, horses or pigs, the hippo's closest living relatives are whales and dolphins from which they diverged 55 million years ago.
Taronga Zoo is celebrating the arrival of a precious Pygmy Hippo calf, the first to be reared by its mother at the Zoo in over 20 years. The female infant named, ‘Kambiri’ meaning “allow me to join this family “was born to mother ‘Petre’ and father ‘Timmy’ and discovered in the early morning of Saturday 26 June by the Zoo’s dedicated keeping staff who had been monitoring the pregnancy.
For the next few weeks visitors will begin to catch glimpses of the newborn as it spends short periods of time exploring the exhibit with its mother.“Pygmy Hippos spend a lot of time in the water so Kambiri needs to perfect the art of swimming before it can spend long periods in the exhibit. Like all infants, they tire quickly so we will be taking things day by day.”
“We ask our visitors to be patient whilst we introduce Kambiri to the outside world, however in the coming weeks we do hope to share her with the community as much as possible. Pygmy Hippo babies are one of the cutest there is and exceptionally precious with only a few thousand individuals left in the wild.”
The infant is the second female calf born to Petre and Timmy, following ‘Monifa’ which was born in 2008. Unfortunately despite Petre initially showing very strong mothering skills, Monifa had to be hand-reared by zoo keepers after a difficult breach birth which compromised the newborn’s ability to thrive.
The Mokopane Biodiversity Conservation Centre was established in 1979 as a satellite of South Africa's National Zoo to promote conservation, research and education in support of native African species. Located roughly halfway between Pretoria and the famous Kruger National Park, Mokopane is part zoo, part breeding facility and part open range where a variety of African species interact in a natural environment.
These camera phone pictures were taken specially for ZooBorns and feature Mokopane's newest little pygmy hippo, born May 28th.
Photo credits: Mark Howitt / National Zoological Gardens of South Africa
Mother hippos give birth underwater so it's perhaps no surprise that baby hippopotamuses like to spend most of their day submerged. This little hippo, pictured at just one week old, was born at Zoo Antwerp in Belgium on May 22nd. The calf might look like a little tyke but baby hippos can weigh over 100 lbs (45kg) at birth!
Flory, a Pygmy Hippo born in late September at the Diergaarde in Blijdorp, Netherlands, rests close to mom. These photos and video, by lensman A.J. Haverkamp, show the infant Pygmy Hippo at only ten days old. Critically endangered in their native home of Western Africa, Pygmy Hippos thrive with proper care at zoos and most of what scientists know about this fascinating animal is derived from zoo populations.
On November 27th, the Colchester Zoo welcomed its first Pygmy Hippo calf. Since then, mom and baby girl have developed a close bond. The little one has been reportedly "suckling strongly," steadily gaining weight, as evidenced below, at a healthy rate.
Keepers at the Edinburgh Zoo are celebrating the birth of a pygmy hippopotamus. Leishan, whose name means ‘gift’ in West African, was born on June 9th. She is the offspring of Ellen and Otto and is the first baby for this new breeding pair.
Big babies can be awfully cute, as evidenced by new arrival Paula the baby hippo at Zoo Berlin. Only two weeks old in this series of photos taken on Tuesday, the little girl already weighs 88 lbs! Fully grown, Paula will weigh about two tons.
While somewhat ungainly on land, underwater hippos take on a graceful quality as the water makes them (relatively) light on their toes. Hippos do not in fact swim underwater, but sink to the bottom where they trot along the bed.
